2003 World Agility Championships
September 26-28, 2003 - Lievin, France
Day Five


The 31st World Agility Championship commenced at 9:00 am with the opening ceremony welcoming and introducing the 32 countries competing this year in France. Mini Team Members Kathie Legget & her Shetland Sheepdog, Heather helped with a member form each country to make a runway for the French Agility associations to present a Guide Dog to its new partner. This was funded by the French Agility Community. USA Team supporter Susan Peterson is served as official English translator for the Opening Ceremony.

Once this ceremony was over our Team got to do what they came for - run agility. Today's events included Individual Jumping and Large Team Jumping.

The Small dog course was the first one set. It proved to be a fast course whose most difficult element was the entry angle to the weave poles. The course was 160 meters. Standard course time was 40 seconds with 20 obstacles. The US Mini Team member did extremely well on his course. Erin Schaeffer & Jag placed 3rd, Roger Coor & Papillion Moso placed 4th and new team member Barbara Bicksler and Shetland Sheepdog Sydney placed 15th overall out of a field of 59 dogs.

Our Medium dogs were the next to the line on a course that Judge Emile Vervoort made minor adjustments too. His adjustments did smooth out the weave pole entry, but added much more speed into the poles. This course was also 160 meters long and had a standard course time of 40 seconds with 20 obstacles. The Midi dog team faired quite well on this course competing with 58 other entrants. Barb Davis and Shetland Sheepdog, Shimmer placed 6th. Jean LaValley and her Shetland Sheepdog Taz had the honor of being the last dog to run out of the 58. This was a good spot for them as they placed 11th overall. Karen Holik and her Shetland Sheepdog, Sizzle, competing at their first World Championships finished in 16th position.

Finally came our Large dog team. We had 4 dogs run in this event that had 129 entrants. The team missed having Nancy Gyes and her Border Collie Riot in this event. Unfortunately, due to an injury Riot was unable to travel with the team to this year's event. The course set by judge, Maryannic Jourden, provided some very technical elements plus a speed section over a three jump straight lead in to a weave pole, straight pipe tunnel and jump discrimination. Seventeen of the 129 teams had some type of fault at the poles either a wrong course or a refusal. Overall, 55 teams overall had some type of fault on this course (not including time faults) which others incurred. The course yardage was 190 meters, standard course time of 42 seconds and it also had 20 obstacles. First to the line for the USA was Sherry Kluever and her Border Collie, Ransom who had an unfortunate off course at the weave pole discrimination. A wrong course is a 50-fault penalty and results in a non-placement for the team. Next up was Terry Smorch and his Border Collie, Remy. The first bar came down for this team, but they still posted good time of 37.17 and with the 5 faults placed 70th overall. Jennifer Pinder and Border Collie, Static had a knocked bar incurring 5 faults with a course time of 38.66 placing them 78th overall. Our last dog to the line was 5 time World Team members Elicia Calhoun and her Australian Shepherd, Suni. Their experienced helped them move through this difficult course cleanly and placing them 16th overall with a course time of 36.38.

The final event of the day, Large Dog Team Jumping, did not start until almost 7:30 pm. Our three team dogs ran clean, fast courses on a fairly technical course with touch jump angles designed by Judge, Emile Vervoort. Jennifer Pinder and Static had a time of 38.33. Terry Smorch and Remy posted a time of 39.79 and our anchor team Elicia Calhoun and Suni ran the course in 36.32 seconds for a cumulative team time of 114.44 seconds. In the team competition all 3 scores count, none are dropped. After all was done at 9:30 PM, the USA placed 5th overall in the Large Team Jumping event. Finland was 1st with a time of 100.90; France was 2nd with a time of 105.39; England was 3rd with a time of 113.64; and Portugal was 4th with a time of 114.40.

Tomorrow's events will be Team Jumping for Medium & Small teams as well as Standard Team events for all sizes.

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